Boxoffice-January.2000

|
Worse
SLEEPY HOLLOW **1/2
Stalling Johnny Depp and Christina
Ricci. Directed hy Tim Burton. \\ ritten hy
Andrew Kevin Walker. Produced hy Scott
Rudin and A dam Schroeder. A Paramount
release. Thriller. Rated R for graphic horror
violence and gore, and for a scene of
sexuality. Running time: 105 min.
Based on the hauntingly romantic
advance publicity photos, audiences
might have formed the impression
that "Sleepy Hollow" is about two
mesmerizingly gothic paramours
whose love story unfolds against the
chilling mystery of the murderous
Headless Horseman. However, the
film is Far more akin to the spirit of
Burton's offputtingly malicious black
comedy "Mars Attacks" than his tenderly
tragic "Edward Scissorhands."
Preceding the entrancingly phantasmagoric
title sequence, the
Horseman swiftly dispatches two victims
(including Martin Landau in a
wordless and obviously extremely
brief cameo) via decapitation: the
heads are never found. A New York magistrate
orders Crane, a bothersome public
defender who dares to question the harsh
judgments of the court, to travel to the
small town of Sleepy Hollow to investigate
the crime. With his handmade 1 8thcentury
detective equipment. Crane is
determined to apprehend the Horseman
and prove him to be a flesh-and-blood
mortal, not the vengeful phantom the
villagers fear. But his own encounter
with the homicidal hellion quickly convinces
Crane of the preternatural nature
of the cranium-craving criminal.
There is some dark humor to be
found in Depp's mincing Crane, who
puts women and small boys in front of
him in dangerous situations and, despite
his scientific background, can't seem to
examine a corpse without endlessly
spurting himself with blood. But there's
a line that Burton seems increasingly
determined to cross, to ill effect. In
"Mars Attacks," it was a feature-length
cacophany of cartoonish killings; here,
it's
the cavalier dismemberment of animals
and even the stalking and implied
murder of a child.
than transgressions of taste or
encroachments of the audience's boundaries
is the simple fact that "Sleepy
I Hollow" is not devilishly funny enough
to be a black comedy, not remotely scary
enough to be an effective thriller, and
> too deficient in chemistry to be any kind
I
of a romance. And the climax contains
all the intrigue of a Scooby Doo reveal.
As usual. Burton's greatest strength is
his wonderfully eerie aesthetics and
atmospherics. Christine James
REVIEWS
SPECIAL FORMAT: IMAX 3-D
GALAPAGOS **l/2
Narrated by Kenneth Branagh. Directed and produced by Al Ciddings and David
Clark. Written by David Clark and Barry Clark. An Imax release. Documentary.
Unrated. Running time: 40 min.
"Galapagos" transports viewers to the eponymous Ecuadorian archipelago where
much of the terrain is made up of solidified lava and exotic creatures reside in the
land and sea. What would otherwise be a dry nature documentary is brought to life
by the magic of Imax 3-D, which allows viewers
the rare opportunity to perceive themselves
within petting distance of indigenous species
of iguanas, giant turtles, sea lions and fish,
with marine biologist Dr. Carole Baldwin
doing all the life-endangering stuff so we don't
have to. She scuba dives perilously near a
school of hammerhead sharks and attracts the
unwanted attention of a nasty-looking nest of
moray eels, but fortunately this footage isn't of
the exploitative "When Animals Attack" ilk;
there's no bloodshed and no feeding frenzies
(except when a cadre of lizards swim into the
ocean to feast on seaweed).
While some of the creatures are truly
remarkable, such as a fish with leg-like appendages and one entity that resembles living
gossamer, we spend a scant amount of time at 3,000 feet and don't see enough of
these fascinatingly alien organisms. Baldwin points out that only about one percent of
the ocean floor has been explored, and that we probably know more about outer space
than our own world (it being two-thirds water); unfortunately, this documentary comes
up shallow in plumbing the secrets of the deep. Christine lames
SIEGFRIED & ROY: THE MAGIC DOX
•••1/2
Starring Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Uwe Ludwig Horn. Directed by Brett
Leonard. Written by Lyn Vaus and Brett Leonard. Produced by Michael V. Lewis. An
Imax release. Documentary. Unrated. Running time: 47 min.
It promised to be a match made in movie heaven as the most spectacular illusionists
in Las Vegas teamed up with the leading exponent of giant screen movie magic.
And fans of both will be thrilled with the result.
Director/co-scripter Brett Leonard's use of the
Imax 3-D format was breathtaking when he made
"T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous." He took audiences
to places they had never been. But it turns
out that was just a warm-up for the astonishing
visuals he delivers with this movie.
Where in "T-Rex" the closest images appeared
to be a few feet in front of you, now they are inches.
You really feel you can reach out and touch
them. Viewers will have to fight the urge to flick
Stardust off their shoulders—it's that real.
Adding immeasurably is the subject matter.
While a roaring, giant T-Rex was impressive, a
real-life white lion looking you straight in the eye
at barely an arm's length is
truly daunting.
In the flesh, Siegfried and Roy put on a heck of
a performance and have for more than three
decades. On the giant screen, it is even more
impressive. You are practically a part of the show.
The only weakness comes with the narrative as
the film explains how these two loners grew up in WWII-scarred Germany, found
comfort in magic and animals and had a chance meeting on a ship bound for the U.S.
Leonard pulls all kinds of fabulous visual stunts but the story is never as big as the
telling. Still, the on-stage and at-home in Las Vegas footage more than make up for it.
In 1952, the first commercial 3-D movie, "Bwana Devil" with Robert Stack, was
released. The tagline was "a lion in your lap." Sadly, that never really happened.
Now, thanks to Siegfried, Roy and Brett, it finally has.—Mike Kerrigan
January, 2000 (R-4) 65